1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optimum operator selection support system, and more particularly, to an optimum operator selection support system which provides information on individual capabilities of operators by utilizing results of jobs executed by the operators while transmitting/receiving electronic information via computers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Upon initiation of a new project or the like, it is necessary to find optimum persons based on the contents of past job experiences. In a small-scale organization, the manager can grasp characteristics of respective members, however, in a large-scale organization, it is difficult for the manager to grasp characteristics of all the members. Accordingly, it has been considered to grasp the contents of jobs of respective members by using a computer or the like, and to utilize the information to develop human resources. The technique for this purpose will be described below.
Apparatuses and methods to find optimum persons by searching pre-registered personal database are known. For example, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 5-298331 discloses a decision making support system in which a database is searched based on an input condition, and significant information is extracted from information obtained from the search based on the input condition. By this arrangement, a decision can be easily made based on the information stored in the database. Upon selection of project members, the decision making support system inputs various conditions from workstations. The system generates an SQL (Structured Query Language) access sentence based on the input conditions, and searches the personal database. Further, the system gives scores to respective candidates obtained from the personal database based on the personal information obtained from the personal database and the input conditions set in a condition table. Then, the system selects candidates as the project members based on the scores of the respective candidates. More specifically, names, employee codes, mail addresses, technical fields, licenses, specialties, current jobs, significance and the like are inputted into the personal database by a generator of the database. Searches are performed based on the data.
Further, apparatuses to select appropriate persons from status of use of computers are known. For example, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 6-95827 discloses a guide apparatus which introduces appropriate skilled workers by storing jobs and functions performed by users with their skill levels. The guide apparatus comprises a function skill levels judgment unit that judges skill levels of respective users with respect to an application software program to run on information processing devices used by the users, personal information storage unit that contains personal information of the respective users, a function skill level storage unit that contains skill levels as outputs from the function skill level judgment unit, an inquiry function input unit that inputs information on a function of the application software program which an operator desires to know, a skilled worker search unit that searches for skilled workers regarding the function that the operator desires to know, inputted at the inquiry function input unit, by utilizing skill level information in the skill level storage unit, and a search result output unit that outputs the result of the search by the skilled worker search unit, with personal information stored in the personal information storage unit.
Further, apparatuses and methods to select persons interested in a particular item from information of past contribution to net news or the like are known. For example, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 10-28135 discloses a discussion-group generation support system which automatically selects candidates of members of a discussion group based on the degree of correspondence between a subject set by a discussion group promoter and data originated by network users, by providing a discussion group setting part, a candidate selection part and an initiation notification delivery part. In this system, the discussion group setting part sets a content to be discussed by users. The candidate selection part collects users originated data corresponding to the content as candidates of the member of the discussion group. The initiation notification delivery part delivers a document calling for participation in the discussion to the collected users.
Further, as an apparatus to analyze jobs conducted by a person and extracts feature of the jobs, an apparatus which extracts features of documents generated by work of a person is considered. A plural document feature extracting apparatuses have been already considered. One known example of these apparatuses is an apparatus which extracts features of a document with keywords each frequently appears in each field. For example, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 2-105973 discloses an automatic document analysis apparatus having a field-based term score table describing keywords each frequently appears in each field and a field-based meaning category score table describing meaning categories of the terms each of which frequently appears in each field. Keywords appeared in an analysis object document and meaning categories of the keywords are analyzed by using the field-based term score table and the field-based meaning category score table, and the class of the analysis object document is determined. By this arrangement, even when a term which has a concept the same as that of a term representing the feature of a field (field-based term) appears in a different character string in an unanalyzed document, the term can be recognized as a term belonging to the same set.
Further, apparatuses to examine similarity between documents and classify the documents are known. For example, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 2-158871 discloses a document analysis apparatus which obtains concept feature amounts of respective documents from frequency values of keywords included in the documents and classifies the documents in accordance with the concept feature amounts by providing a keyword information amount storage part, a concept feature extraction part and an inter-document distance calculation part.
Further, apparatuses to record topics to which users accessed and obtain document features based on the frequencies of the topics are known. For example, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 9-212513 discloses a book information display apparatus in which an access frequency measurement unit counts the numbers of times of access to information on topics by a user from an information selection unit, then the numbers are compared with a threshold value to extract a representative topic, and the topics are stored into a representative information temporary storage unit. The structure of information related to the representative topic is determined by a representative information hierarchy determination unit based on the representative topic. Then, when a timer starts, a book information synthesizing unit synthesizes the information into a document and displays it, in a book form, on an information display unit.
However, the conventional techniques respectively have the following problems.
In the apparatus to search a personal database (e.g., the decision making support system disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 5-298331) it takes much time to analyze and evaluate the jobs of respective members and construct a database with the obtained information. Further, the contents of the jobs cannot be necessarily analyzed exactly. Further, as the contents of the jobs are often expressed with abstract words, the amount of information necessary for on-the target determination is insufficient for selection of members from a plurality of candidates.
In the system to search for skilled workers in accordance with skill levels regarding application software program (e.g., the guide apparatus disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 6-95827), even if skill levels regarding an application software program can be judged, the judged levels cannot be directly utilized for determination of features and roles of a job without difficulty.
In the system to select persons interested in similar matters based on information originated by users as past contribution to net news, electronic-mail news, WWW (World Wide Web) and the like, (e.g., the discussion-group generation support system disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 10-28135), persons who use many of terms related to a topic and persons who often use the terms can be selected, however, the selection cannot necessarily lead to analysis of jobs, roles and degree of contribution of these persons.
In the apparatus to examine keywords each of which appears in each field in a document and meaning categories of the keywords, and to classify a sentence, having the same concept of that in a field-based term score table but not using the same terms, into the same field of the score table (e.g., the automatic document analysis apparatus disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 2-105973), the features of the document can be obtained, however, the features of a task (job), roles of operator of the task and the like cannot be extracted without difficulty. For example, in a case where an operator performs a task to survey the method for proceeding development of a plurality of products, documents are often arranged for each example of developed products. In this case, the features of each document represent the features of each product. However, the feature of the task and that of the operator's job are the survey on the method for proceeding development. In this manner, the actual job content may differ from the analysis result.
In the apparatus to obtain concept feature amounts of respective documents from frequency values of keywords included in the documents (e.g., the document analysis apparatus disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 2-158871), similarity between documents can be obtained, however, the features of tasks in which documents have been generated, the roles of the operators of the tasks and the like cannot be extracted without difficulty.
In the apparatus to classify documents based on relation between the documents and accessed topics in the documents (e.g., the book information display apparatus disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 9-212513), the relations between documents and accessed topics can be obtained. However, even a close relation exists between a document with a topic, if the topic has not been accessed, the relation cannot be obtained. That is, the relations cannot necessarily represent the features of the documents. Further, to represent the features of a document, it is necessary to wait for a statistically-significant amount of access. Further, as the degree of relation between a topic and a document is not considered, every single access to a topic is processed with the same weight regardless of the degree of relation between the topic and the document. Accordingly, a broad-ranged feature of the document is registered. Further, upon access to a document, a topic related to the access may not be clarified. Otherwise, in a case where the information of the document has been recently provided for common use and it has not been accessed many times, the features of the document cannot be extracted. Further, even if the features of the document can be represented, the features of a task related to the document, the role of the operator in the task and the like cannot be extracted without difficulty.